Dead orca washes up on Scottish beach
An orca, which could belong to the UK’s only native group or pod of these creatures, has washed up dead on a beach in North Uist, Scotland.
The cause of death has yet to be discovered but pictures of the orca (or killer whale) show no signs of injury from either boat propellers or fishing gear.
A post mortem was recently carried out which will try to establish the cause of death and hopefully identify which population this orca came from. The small group of orcas that are known to live off the west coast of Scotland is under threat and this incident could be a further blow to their future survival.
Reports suggest that there was quite a lot of marine debris in the orca’s stomach such as fish hooks, plastic bags and silage wrap.
